Is gaining a 'sixth sense' one of the rewards of appreciating nature? The recent Tsunami in December 2004 that devastated parts of Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka renewed interest in the seeming existence of a sixth sense in animals. One of the devastated areas was an animal reserve at Yala in Sri Lanka with monkeys, leopards, buffalo, elephants and 130 species of birds. But after the Tsunami and the unfortunate death of many tourists, virtually no animal carcasses were found. How did the animals escape the tidal wave? Animals were reported to behave strangely long before the Tsunami struck. Some observations were that elephants screamed and ran to higher ground. A dog refused to go for its beachside walk. Flamingos breeding at Point Calimere wildlife sanctuary in India abandoned their nests for higher ground before the tidal wave struck. And zoo animals remained in their shelters. The problem with some of these observations must be that they are coincidental, but become remembered as evidence of a sixth sense upon association with such a significant event. A bit like people who thought Uri Geller could mend watches by channelling psychic powers through their TV set. A small percentage of 'broken' watches will always work for a while if tested again, and these are the examples that would get reported, rather than the majority of boring failures.

There have been other examples of animal sixth sense. For example, strange behaviour by animals in 1975 in the Chinese city of Haicheng led officials to evacuate the city, which saved thousands of lives when a large earthquake struck a few days later. Similarly, it was recorded that before an earthquake struck Helice in Greece in 373 B.C., animals such as dogs, rats and snakes fled the city. A medical doctor in Japan in September 2003 claimed that he could predict earthquakes when the behaviour of dogs became erratic and anxious.